Alright, this is essentially a follow-up to one of my previous questions. I thought about it for a bit, edited the original question, and this is what I came up with:

Our understanding of physics smaller than atoms is limited. We still have to learn more about the nature of the Universe, and have a lot of grayish area to map out. Things like 4th dimensions and the Higgs Field are currently enigmas to us in current science, and the discovery of new revelations of physics could transform society.

As a dreamer and story builder, I decided to abuse this as much as possible.

IF we don't necessarily understand the idea behind basic forces and the connections they hold, then what could deny that they are all linked?
What if there is a single energy/entity which, if correctly manipulated, could do supernatural things?

Simply put, I wanted to find a scientifically plausible explanation for Magic.

One idea I had for this was based around the General Relativity, and that there is a space-time like field which is essentially the "base" origin for power. An electrical wire, therefore, would bend this field, and anyone properly equipped could then bend and push the field to do whatever they want.

However, I don't have a PhD in exotic physics, which is why I turned to this Q&A.

Is anything I just said remotely plausible? I'm kinda going free-reign in the unexplored areas of incredibly complex physics, but please take it with a grain of salt. Any challenges or helpful comments would be greatly appreciated.

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$\begingroup$"One of these fields allows for the movement of subatomic particles, and in turn controls all forms of energy as we know." - which one would it be? Or are you just imagined it? Also, light has really little to do with movement of subatomic particles. Last but not least, it looks like just another form of energy. Why to call it "meta-"?$\endgroup$
– MołotNov 5 '17 at 9:22

$\begingroup$Molot: its only for a story project, and the other question was a bit vauge.$\endgroup$
– WorldCraftTraineeNov 5 '17 at 10:10

$\begingroup$Some of the known fundamental force carriers such as W and Z bosons which meditate weak nuclear force have a very short range and you have to smash heavy particles at very high energy level to create a "tiny splash" on the quantum field, even then these particles would quickly decays. I suppose your beings version of "high five" would be seen as "heaven splitting and earth shattering" :D$\endgroup$
– user6760Nov 5 '17 at 11:25

$\begingroup$Welcome to WorldBuilding WorldCraftTrainee! If you encounter hate comments without any constructive component you can flag them for moderator attention because we don't want unconstructive comments on the site (hovering over the comment on the left side you can see an upvote arrow and a flag symbol). You can notify users by writing an "@" in front of their name (the OP is always notified, which is why I don't need to do that to notify you).$\endgroup$
– SecespitusNov 24 '17 at 10:44

1 Answer
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Individually, some of your premises are plausible. For example there is a developing belief that the four "forces" (electromagnetic, strong nuclear force, weak nuclear force, gravitational) may be expressions of two, or possibly even a single unified force.

Congealing energy in crystals is nothing new, at least when electromagnetic forces are in play; phenomenons such as triboluminescence, piezoelectricity and gadgets such as electrostatic capacitors may all be considered forms of such.

Building on all of them together is not going to work.

The problem lies in the fact that we are electromagnetic creatures - our life processes are based on only one force, electromagnetism. Even those few organisms that are commonly said to rely on nuclear forces such as radiotrophic fungi are really based on the electromagnetic by-products of nuclear phenomenons. Analogously, the fact that we live on planets, which only exist thanks to gravitational force, does not make us gravitationally powered, or capable of any significant intentional gravitational manipulation (hold the obesity joke).

The four forces we know of are thought to be a differentiation of a single force; think of it as a large river that flows into four smaller emissaries. When you bring together two emissaries you get the originating, larger river, itself an emissary of a yet larger one. But to do the joining, you need energy. To unify the weak nuclear force with electromagnetic force you need to attain the first unification level at 246 GeV (one gigaelectronvolt is the energy acquired by an electron subject to a potential of one billion volt). To unify this combined electroweak force with strong nuclear force you need to exceed the second unification level (GUT) at 1016 GeV - that's 10,000,000,000,000 GeV or ten billion TeV, an increase of a factor of forty billion. The CERN supercollider can reach 14 TeV (out of 10,000,000,000). To try and give an idea, an electron endowed with GUT-level energies would have an energy of 1.6 mega-Joules, or 440 Wh; enough to power an iPhone for two months.

If a 1eV electron was a pea hitting you just hard enough to feel it, a GUT-level electron would have the force of one billion billions Tsar Bombs - it would instantaneously disintegrate you to plasma, dissolve that plasma into nucleons, pulverize the nucleons into a quark fog, turn the whole continent into a fireball, and the heat flash from the explosion might strip the atmosphere off Venus.

To be able to interact at TOE levels, unifying the last force, the required energies are (if possible) even more terrifying. And cannot be attained by any conceivable level of genetic engineering; just to reach the TeV threshold, one would need to be genetically engineered into a proton-smashing ring at least four kilometers in radius, with powerful electromagnets and supercooling to very near absolute zero, both very, very hard for any biological construct. And that level is both woefully short of GUT, and completely incapable of any meaningful control.

The best that has been done to my knowledge to "make magic real" is quickly handwave the Uncertainty Principle and entanglement (mandatory caveat: this is handwaving. It totally is not scientifically sound) and have a sophont's nervous system - since it's connected to the brain and oh-so-tiny - develop magical nodes. Changes in magical nodes cause entangled changes in nearby matter. You still can't handwave away conservation of mass and energy, so lifting one ton of iron will push you down with one ton (okay, 9807 newtons) of force, likely killing you - but, if you can "convince" a sufficient number of bound neutrons to beta-decay and relocate elsewhere, you've got the making of a hell of a fire-spell. Nuclear powered to boot. Catalyzing massive changes between a target object and a mana crystal is one way of sidestepping the biological limitations of a magical node, supplying an amplification method for magic.

The mechanisms above, while definitely not physically plausible, at least provide a single unbelief-suspension point to explain most common magic plot points.

$\begingroup$+1, "to interact at GUT or TOE levels, much less at the quantum level," Maybe reword? At first glance this looks like the two levels are two separate levels of the same scale, of which the "interact at the quantum level" is more difficult. Maybe just "To be able to interact at GUT or TOE levels the required energy levels are terrifying." I get what you mean with "quantum level" (I think), but honestly rest of the paragraph makes the scale issue better.$\endgroup$
– Ville NiemiNov 5 '17 at 11:32

$\begingroup$@VilleNiemi You're very probably right, answer edited. I've also removed a "level" and may later replace with a synonym, to make reading a bit less buffalo buffalo.$\endgroup$
– LSerniNov 5 '17 at 11:45

$\begingroup$but is it possible that deeper down in theoretical physics that there's a field which represents the purest form of force, and could be manipulated (Granted, a highly powerful one)? I don't know ANYTHING about the topic: I just thought that this would be perfect to go with a story project i'm working on.$\endgroup$
– WorldCraftTraineeNov 23 '17 at 11:34

$\begingroup$It is possible. It looks like it is true, even. But how things seem to go is, you don't go "deeper" - you need to go harder. The One Force manifests (if it does...) at energy intensities that were not seen after the Big Bang. And you are definitely not going to work with that kind of energies in a living organism and have it go on living.$\endgroup$
– LSerniNov 23 '17 at 14:04